Larcher offers 'three ways' to reform presidential candidate endorsements system

Everyone has their own solution.

This Wednesday, President LR of the Senate Gérard Larcher will propose to the Senate Law Commission "three ways" to reform the system of sponsorship of presidential candidates, at a time when some are struggling to collect the 500 signatures of elected officials required.

Emphasizing on France 2 that "sponsoring is not supporting" politically, Gérard Larcher recalled that the system of sponsorship by elected officials aimed to "avoid fanciful candidacies".

However, "neither Éric Zemmour, nor Marine Le Pen, nor Jean-Luc Mélenchon, nor Nicolas Dupont-Aignan", who report difficulties in collecting 500 signatures from elected officials when they represent "together 40% of the voting intentions" in the polls, "are not fanciful candidates, and if they were not present in the election, there would be a real weakening, even a denial of democracy", he argued.

He puts on the table "three ways" to solve the problem: "the question of anonymity (of the sponsors, editor's note), compulsory sponsorship" and "a mix" between the support of "citizen collectives and a smaller part of 'elected', a proposal made in the past by the PS and La France insoumise, he recalled, planning to seize the president of the Law Commission.

Read alsoPresidential: age, political tendency ... discover the profile of the elected officials who sponsor Eric Zemmour

The presidential candidates have until March 4 to file the list of their 500 sponsorships with the Constitutional Council, but Marine Le Pen (RN), Éric Zemmour (Reconquête!) and Jean-Luc Mélenchon (LFI) are still struggling to find them. to assemble.

For his part, the President of the National Assembly Richard Ferrand (LREM) “thinks that in the end we will not talk about it anymore” because all these candidates “will have sponsorships”.

With each presidential election "it's a bit the same," he noted to the Association of Parliamentary Journalists.

“Finding a system that guarantees that the major currents of thought can express themselves”

However, "given the emotion aroused" this time, according to him, it will "probably be necessary to put the work back on the job" and review the rules to "find a system which guarantees that the major currents of thought can be expressed, and that we keep a kind of filter”.

Prime Minister Jean Castex receives the associations of local elected officials as well as the presidents of the National Assembly and the Senate on this question on Thursday.

According to the head of government, out of approximately 42,000 elected officials authorized to grant their sponsorships, only 10,000 have so far done so.

Former Minister François Bayrou, for his part, created a "sponsorship reserve" for candidates who collect at least 10% of voting intentions but who have difficulty collecting 500 initials.

Tuesday evening, he had gathered 180 elected officials ready to sponsor.

Politicians regularly question these difficulties in a reform of 2016, which introduced the publication in full on the Constitutional Council's website of the names of elected officials (in particular mayors, parliamentarians, general and regional councilors) sponsoring a candidate, while anonymity was previously the rule.

This change, which aimed for greater transparency, would discourage potential signatories, as sponsorship is often equated with political support.